Accounts of U.S. empire building in Latin America typically portray
politically and economically powerful North Americans descending on
their southerly neighbors to engage in lopsided negotiations.
Dennis Merrill's comparative history of U.S. tourism in Latin
America in the twentieth century demonstrates that empire is a more
textured, variable, and interactive system of inequality and
resistance than commonly assumed.
In his examination of interwar Mexico, early Cold War Cuba, and
Puerto Rico during the Alliance for Progress, Merrill demonstrates
how tourists and the international travel industry facilitated the
expansion of U.S. consumer and cultural power in Latin America. He
also shows the many ways in which local service workers, labor
unions, business interests, and host governments vied to manage the
Yankee invasion. While national leaders negotiated treaties and
military occupations, visitors and hosts navigated interracial
encounters in bars and brothels, confronted clashing notions of
gender and sexuality at beachside resorts, and negotiated national
identities. Highlighting the everyday realities of U.S. empire in
ways often overlooked, Merrill's analysis provides historical
context for understanding the contemporary debate over the costs
and benefits of globalization.